Ind. man charged for threats to wife, school

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A man charged with threatening a massacre at a school in northwest Indiana also told his wife he would stab her with a screwdriver and kill her children and grandchildren, according to court documents.

A Lake County judge set bond at $100,000 for Von Meyer, 60, of Cedar Lake, during a hearing Tuesday on charges of intimidation, domestic battery and resisting law enforcement.

Carolyn Rogers of the prosecutor’s office said the judge entered a not guilty plea on Meyer’s behalf and named a public defender.

Police in the town about 45 miles southeast of Chicago boosted security at Jane Ball Elementary School and three other area schools as a precaution Friday after Meyer’s wife told officers he had threatened during an argument to go to the school and kill as many people as he could. Meyer’s wife works at the cafeteria at the school, which police say is only about 500 feet from the couple’s home.

Meyer’s wife phoned police hours before 26 people, including 20 students, were shot and killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

Police found 47 guns and ammunition hidden throughout Meyer’s two-story home after they arrested him Saturday, but interim Cedar Lake Police Chief Jerry Smith has said most of those weapons were antique collector guns and that he believes Meyer was not serious about his school threat.

Meyer’s wife told investigators said he shoved her to the ground and threatened to kill her by stabbing her with a screwdriver, gouging her eyes out and setting her on fire, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in court Saturday. He also told her that he would kill her adult son and his children, kill her adult daughter and kidnap her granddaughter. Meyer allegedly told his wife that if she had a baby granddaughter, he would cut off its head.

The affidavit also says Meyer took an urn containing the cremated remains of his mother-in-law off a mantle and threatened to force his wife to eat them before saying he would “go on a rampage” and “shoot up the school.”

She fled to a neighbor’s home and called the police.

Smith said Meyer’s wife told officers their relationship was turbulent and he had often threatened her. According to the affidavit, she told investigators that she believed her husband made the threats because he didn’t think she was listening to him.